Kay's sittong on the railroad tracks behind her house in Seoul, Korea, during the summer of 1966.

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Kay's sittong on the railroad tracks behind her house in Seoul, Korea, during the summer of 1966.

Kay Sook Hancy

Hello everybody!  I was born in Seoul, Korea, on November 30th, 1962. I've lived in Korea my entire life, except for an eight-year period in Hawaii soon after my marriage to Jim.

After we got married (October 13th, 1991), we lived about 35 miles south of Seoul in a small town called Anjong Ri, right outside Camp Humphreys, where Jim was stationed with the Air Force. We moved back to Seoul, though, a little over a year later, and stayed there for about two-and-a-half years. In 1993, we made a trip to Hawaii to get my U.S. citizenship.  

Jim and I moved to Hawaii on July 31st, 1995. Sometimes I got homesick, but, for the most part I felt pretty much right at home there. I made a lot of Korean-American friends, and I had Korean supermarkets, restaurants, newspapers, TV, radio, etc, to remind me of home. Also, my mom visited us three times (once with my dad), and two of my aunties and two of my cousins visited us once while we lived in Hawaii.

The highlight of my life so far has been the birth of our daughter, Tia. She was due May 24th, 2000, but the end of the month came and went and Tia was still right there in my womb. She was finally born at 9:43am on Saturday, June 3rd, 2000 -- 9 pounds, 5 ounces, and 21 inches long. She was definitely worth the wait. She's a beautiful child, if I do say so myself! She's our pride and joy and has always been as healthy as can be.

Here in Korea, Tia is surrounded by the love of my extended family, too. It's also much easier to raise her to be bilingual and bicultural here. She's well on her way.

I started my college education in 2004. I put it on hold the next year, though, when Jim started working on his Master's degree. He's got his degree now, but I'm going to concentrate on helping Tia get through elementary school before I go back to school again.

Send email to kay@hancy.us

Updated Friday, October 16, 2009.